OASIS (UK)

Smile For The Sun (Dove DOVE 45) 1977 UK *

Soft folk-rock sounds from 5-guy 2-girl Holland outﬁt, pretty lovely on the whole, especially when done in a hands-off mildly-progressive acoustic style. Most of Smile For The Sun follows this trend, sounding particularly cutting-edge on ‘I Heard The Voice Of Jesus’ where harmonies, guitar, piano, dulcimer and recorder magically intertwine. Some charming acoustic ballads, including ‘Who Is This Man?’ and ‘He Is The One’. Title track has a fuzzy electric guitar lead, making it one of the more rock-edged selections. Banjo and harmonica add folksy touches to a couple tracks. Other songs include Barry McGuire’s ‘Happy Road’ and Honeytree/Keaggy’s ‘Lovely Jesus’, plus Dutch versions of Graham Kendrick’s ‘In Your Way’ and Dan Burgess’ ‘Thank You Lord’. (The Archivist, 4th edition by Ken Scott).

This is a wonderful album that I’ve had for close on 20 years, long before I’d ever heard of the more famous Oasis ! I liked it from the very start, an interesting hybrid of mystical Euro folk with male and female vocals, hard edged pop, teutonic singalong and modern hymns and in three languages to boot ! There’s some pretty nifty lead guitar and tasteful electric piano sprinkled throughout and when they’re ready to get lively, they do ! All the songs are good and are well arranged but the title track “Smile for the sun” is a highlight as is “Gott Ist Tatsächilich Da!” ( I just love this crazy tune ). Interestingly, my favourite track is their superb rendition of “I Heard The Voice of Jesus”. It sounds truly medieval, mysterious and melancholy, the female vocalist sings it so purely and beautifully and is well supported by the guys harmonies. It’s a magnificent version of the hymn, indeed it infuses it with completely new musical meaning ( whenever I’ve done this hymn in a church setting, it’s this version that’s my template ) and nowhere is this more amply demonstrated than in the middle instrumental break where there is this fantastic interplay between the guitar, electric piano, recorder and bass. It’s very short, too short actually, but glorious nonetheless. I remember buying it for less than a pound and it qualifies in my collection as one of the great bargains of my record buying life {grimtraveller}.

Thanks for pointing us to this one Randy. Agree with most of Grimtraveller’s comments – there is some great music on this album, although it’s maybe not as consistent as some of the classics of this time.

Oasis was a Youth for Christ project in the mid-70’s. 8 young christians from diverse european country’s travelled 2 years troughout Europe to spread the gospel. Performing in schools, churches and YfC-coffeebars.

Wow! . . . I never thought that my recent interest in the nostalgic moments in the past would lead me to find this! I just attended a reunion of a YFC chorale/band out of Syracuse, NY that I was in back in the early ’70’s (The Friendly Folk — 3 albums). It was its music director, Jim Plankenhorn (who was just taken from us by cancer this past June), who, while in Holland in May ’76, connected with Ted Groat, the music director for a new international YFC group, Oasis, and floated my name as a possible candidate for the bass slot (as I was Italian born, and they were looking for uniquely European membership). I was with the group for the first two years, from July ’76 until April of ’78. The group actually continued on for another couple years, but scaled-down with mostly newer members and a more acoustic sound. Incidentally, in his arrangement of that Horatius Bonar piece to which {grimtraveller} refers above — John patterned it after the wonderful English folk music to which he was exposed (Steeleye Span, Pentangle, etc.), including characteristic 3/4 to 4/4 tempo transition and typical harmonies — the latter of which, along with the four part counterpoint, was penned by Ted. — Ric

Oh, my goodness! I never thought of returning to the site until now! I apologize! I’ve some 70’s music information for you:

Yes, I have the 3 albums — “Welcome Home Children” (1972), “Reach Out and Touch” (1973) and “Because He Lives”(1974). After I left it in January 1975, the group continued on for another two years. It then underwent a name change, Together Again, and recorded another album (I do not have a copy of that, but I could hook you up with someone who might).

Also, one of the original vocalists in FF came from another group out of Solvay, NY (outside Syracuse) called The Something New. I have the album that they made in 1970 called, “Are You Looking”.

Also, I neglected to mention above that, after I left, Oasis went on to record another album, “No Room For Fighting”, which I do have.

Finally, in the original Oasis, our pianist, Hans-Werner Scharnowski, had come over from YFC Germany choir, called the Jugend Für Christus Chor. I have an album they made, “Freiheit”, on which Hansi sings and plays keyboards and harmonica.

Hello Ric,
Thanks for the info about Oasis and Hansi. The Oasis albums are also in the Discogs database. I’m trying to identify the members for the credits. Unfortunately i didn’t manage to find the last names for Diana (Vocals, Percussion) and Heinz (Manager, Stage Sound Mixing). Are you able to provide the last names? Thanks.